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Twitter leads social networks for Christmas hype

Views 02/12/2016

How Christmassy is the UK this year? According to insight compiled by Carat UK, we are currently at –5% Christmas mentions on Twitter, compared to last year.

TwitterChristmas

Twitter users are the first to begin Christmas-related chatter, thinking about gifts as early as September, according to Carat’s latest social listening infographic. Festive Facebook posts, on the other hand, only start to heat up around early November. And while figures suggests that 45% of people start to feel excited about Christmas ahead of December, the infographic indicates that it only becomes socially acceptable to start posting from 1st December, with Christmas tweets increasing by an incredible 65% on the same day last year.

Following an impressive 17,286,053 Christmas mentions on Twitter between October and December 2015, the latest findings reveal that conversation around Christmas this year is currently -5% behind. The same data highlights a noticeable annual conversation uplift led by the release of the John Lewis Christmas ad this year, driving a YoY daily average volume increase of 72% following release day. And while John Lewis has maintained SOV for 2016, M&S’ #LoveMrsClaus is spreading more festivity, achieving 39% net sentiment vs. 25% for #BusterTheBoxer.

When it comes to emotions during the festive season, joy is found to be the prevailing mood across December. Last year, social media users were tweeting about feeling grateful, primarily led by time spent with their loved ones. Additional happiness is found in festive food options: early anticipation for Christmas dinner starts in October, and there is an influx of “hangry” tweets on Christmas Day from those having to wait.

The infographic also reveals that while Christmas spending starts as early as October, the first significant communal peak for Christmas shopping conversation is actually driven by Black Friday and Cyber Monday in late November. Inspired by a burst of collective excitement on 1st December, shoppers start to plan; Facebook IQ research reveals that 46% of shoppers leave present buying to the second half of December, a behaviour which was replicated by tweet volume from 15th December last year.

The pinnacle of Christmas shopping conversation happens on Christmas Eve, led in 2015 by millennial males, according to the infographic. On average, spending habits for families with children is revealed to be £450, while toys have the highest average spend, and clothes are the most popular gift category.